Persons who work in construction and/or maintenance of elevated structures such as buildings, scaffoldings, oil rigs, elevated pipelines, cell towers, telephone lines, wind turbines and the like (for example) are frequently at risk for inadvertent falls from these structures. Thus, such persons may be required to wear a safety harness that is designed to prevent a dangerous fall. One exemplary safety harness may comprise a combination of belts that criss-cross each other and are fastened around the torso, upper chest area, and waist (and possible the thigh area), with a lanyard that is attached to the back of the harness where these belts may cross each other.
Accordingly, in the event that the person inadvertently falls from the structure, the harness and lanyard support the person's weight and prevent the person from falling to the ground. Conventional safety harnesses may be constructed from tough materials such as nylon webbing, leather, or the like. The harness may include a “D” ring (or other fittings) that is secured at one end of the lanyard. The opposite (far) end of the lanyard may be connected to the elevated structure using a suitable coupling, well-known in the art. In some cases, the far end of the lanyard may be connected to stationary railing beams using additional rollers or pulleys, providing horizontal mobility to the user at the elevated level.
Until now, little thought or effort has gone into studying and understanding additional aspects of such a safety harness. For example, while a conventional fall arrest harness is functional for many jobs and trades, it lacks the proper back, neck, and head support for many applications. Additionally, if the harness is in fact used to prevent a fall to the ground, the person will experience a “fall” to some degree, with additional forces applied to his body (which may be serious and traumatic forces applied to the head, neck, and back area).
Additionally, many workers are constantly looking up, as in daily window washing and elevated painting operations. Tasks such as performing precision welds on elevated piping are known to severely stress an individual's back and neck muscles. Even welders working on ground-level piping experience these stresses when positioned somewhat underneath of piping and welding in a somewhat upward direction.